NBC's The Munsters show has been put on hiatus for retooling

Demonstrating just how much NBC apparently has riding on a reboot of The Munsters, the network has taken Bryan Fuller’s darker, edgier, more geographically aware update Mockingbird Lane off of its fall schedule, likely pushing it to a midseason start date. Variety reports that the production has now been delayed until summer, as NBC dedicates itself to giving the project the “extra attention” it needs to “get the elements just right”—sharpening the edges and darkening the dark stuff, as it were. Presumably this will also give them time to overcome the greatest hurdle facing what could otherwise be another promising Bryan Fuller show—namely, coming to terms with the fact that it is a remake of The Munsters, which necessitates actually casting a Frankenstein and a vampire lady as the parents to a wolfboy, and somehow making that not only not look like a goofy, perpetual Halloween party, but also compelling enough to sustain a weekly one-hour drama. Because you can write a solidly dark, edgy script and all, but everything’s up in the air the second you have a guy put on green makeup and neck bolts.